spire
IPA: spˈaɪr
noun
- (now rare) The stalk or stem of a plant.
- A young shoot of a plant; a spear.
- Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
- A sharp or tapering point.
- (architecture) A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.
- The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
- (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
- One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.
- A spiral.
- (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.
verb
- (of a seed, plant etc.) to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.
- To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
- (transitive) To furnish with a spire.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To breathe.
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Examples of "spire" in Sentences
- The spire of the shell is conic.
- The spire was the tallest in Nottingham.
- The top floor of the tower is to the top of the spire.
- Many churches have a weathercock on the tower or spire.
- Problems afflicted the spire and tower throughout the 20th century.
- The inner arches of the tower carried a spire of graceful proportions.
- The architecture is of the Gothic style and the spire reaches 35 metres.
- The chancel is slightly lower than the nave and the tower has a broach spire.
- The clock tower of the Town Hall is the lesser spire on the left of the photo.
- The vane was added to the church in 1746 when the spire was built on the tower.
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